Labour Conference has now voted against the leadership by supporting a non-binding motion by Unite and the Communication Workers Union to reverse the winter fuel cut. Posturing – what they do best…

At a panel event yesterday evening billed for “policy nerds” the Resolution Foundation discussed Labour’s “New Economic Plan” to get growth up and emissions down. Energy Minister Miatta Fahnbulleh was asked whether the government would institute taxpayer-funded energy bill support in Labour’s net zero transition:

“So the long-term solution for us is clean power, but we know that as we transition the question of bill support is a genuine thing… It’s interesting, you know, all the charity sector and actually most of the energy suppliers are now very aligned around a social tariff – so there was a very strong message coming into government… it is quite a coalition.”

Miatta suggested that the Labour would cave to pressure from leading social tariff campaigners like Citizens Advice, whose Chief Executive Clare Moriarty was also at the event. The organisation proposes a “cash payment to fuel poor households” from £381 to £1,500. The minister made clear plans were in the works:

“We will look at the range of options available to us… but I think we’re quite clear that we’re not going to do what the last government did which is just kick it around.”

Fahnbulleh suggested splitting the cost of the new energy benefit between the taxpayer and energy companies and hinted that the government could withdraw companies’ ability to operate if they don’t comply with new support strictures. Rely on Labour to crush the market into shape…

“I don’t think this is just a proposition for government, I think suppliers have a big role to play and when you think about other models where there is bill support there is always co-funding… so I think about the example in Holland, the example in France. I think there’s a big role for energy suppliers to be part of the solution here – they have a regulatory obligation to look after vulnerable customers. We need need to make sure that we are maximizing that – you know for me it’s a question of the licence to operate and I think showing that you are looking after all your customers and your vulnerable customers in particular.”

During her tenure as head of the Corbynite New Economics Foundation Miatta campaigned for nationalisation of the banks, “flooding the market” with nationalised energy companies, and “free basic energy” for everyone. Spending billions on bill support is a drop in the ocean compared to her stated intentions…

With the gloomy budget and business-crushing tax rising ahead, Labour ministers aren’t exactly the go-to choice for many CEOs to enjoy a drink with. Labour tried to cosy up to chief executives at Labour conference, though apparently, even on their own turf, they didn’t exactly impress…

Now corporate bosses are demanding a refund after shelling out £3,000-a-head for Labour’s “business day” at the party conference, calling it “bleak” and a “waste of money.” Seems to be a theme in the Labour party…

Labour bragged about hosting hundreds of top execs at their biggest-ever business day, with big names promised access to the PM, Chancellor, and other top ministers. Though executives have been left with a bitter taste after getting “minimal time” with ministers and being “talked at” for four hours from the stage. That is bleak…

One chief complained: “We paid £3,000 to come here and what did we get? A livestream of Rachel [Reeves]’s speech and then to be made to queue in a bleak corridor for a drinks reception where there was no access to ministers.” Labour and little value for money, eh…

John McDonnell spoke first at tonight’s gathering of expelled MPs and some of the socialist ones who still have the whip. He said he was actually impressed by the extent of Starmer’s socialism:

“I was elated, absolutely elated when Labour was elected, and you know in those first weeks I’ve been encouraged. If you look at the stuff and Keir mentioned some of it today: rail renationalisation, the bus regulation, the restoration of trade union rights – all drawn actually from manifestos in 2017 and 2019. But we mustn’t say that.”

Naturally the ex-Shadow Chancellor finished off by saying that keeping the two-child benefit cap and means-testing the Winter Fuel Allowance would be Starmer’s downfall. He stopped short of predicting an election loss next time round but pointed out that this level of discontent never usually appears until mid-term…

There we were, Labour’s first government conference in many years, and their leader’s first as prime minister. He began by praising the introductory speaker, a youth from an unfortunate background who had through hard work and ambition risen to a place at university. “You’re doing something you’ve never done before. Fantastic!” To which hecklers might have responded, “Like you, mush!”

How fantastic will Keir be? It is increasingly likely that he will prove himself to be a genuinely transformative premier.

The speech itself was a disappointment, of course, he always manages that. But in this case, he disappointed most of all those expecting the familiar amalgam of boredom, irritation and political incompetence blended into a phlegm of sinusitis clichés.

From that metric, the speech was a triumph.

Indeed, there was something for everyone.

He has developed an easy demeanour offering glimpses of his personal life to please the pensioners; a list of legislative changes already in train to please his activists; and a sober series of socialisms for his Clement Attlee fans.

There was a self-contradicting statement to please Labour’s philologists: “Country first, party second,” he said. “That is not a slogan.”

And, in a spirit of inclusive generosity, there was more than enough piety and piffle to please the naysayers, wreckers and blockers. His talk of rebuilding Britain, the importance of joy in life, and that “politics can be on the side of truth and justice” cheered up very many of us. That was bested by his desire for a Britain where everybody had an equal voice. That his care worker sister could walk into a room and command equal respect to the prime minister.

It’s hard to critique that without resorting to farmyard language. Readers may care to try, it is beyond your sketch writer.

There were passages where his solid, sober, serious demeanour carried off really quite authentically. There was something in him ancestral to the Labour tradition, something of a Gordon Brown after a successful lobotomy.

But he went too far when he said, “Britain is no longer sure of itself. Our story is uncertain”. Surely that’s not so? Surely we know we’re a country of colonising, white-supremacist slavers who are going to die by climate change because of the Industrial Revolution that still sends Global Majority infants up chimneys? Isn’t that what the Left have been beating into our children for years?

There were also a number of sausages to fortune to please those who take a long view of politics – as long, in this case, as 18 months.

“The patient, calm, determined era of politics as service has begun,” he said, in a phrase to be remembered and relished. That ranks and rankles alongside “a kinder, gentler politics”, and “a politics that treads more lightly on people’s lives”.

How patient, how calm will the Government be when the Shires rise up against the “rebuilding Britain” project, the unions are striking to take over the economy, and the power is available on Third World rolling blackouts? When the Cabinet is leaking and briefing and scrabbling each other’s eyes out in a narcotic frenzy of ambition?

But that may be just a beautiful dream.

Where were we?

“This is a Government of Service. And that means, whether we agree or not, I will always treat you with the respect of candour, not the distraction of bluster.” Allied to that, he promised, to applause, to legislate before April for a duty of candour with criminal sanctions, imposed on all public servants. He will need a prepared answer when he is asked if the duty applies to prime ministers.

He kept saying, “Britain belongs to you” but never candidly said what he meant by “belongs”, and certainly never said what he meant by “you”. Were gender-critical, climate sceptic Leavers included? Probably not. Were violent, thuggish, racist, modesty-patrolling jihadis included? Probably yes. That at least shows strategic foresight preparing for an Isis party with 35 seats below the gangway after the next election.

Another interesting absence in the speech – the words “net zero”. Starmer and his Chancellor are keeping their options open on that – something which could have been read on the face of Ed Miliband’s in the front row of the stalls. That face said, “My boiler ban is never going to happen. I am going to have to take over the government, for the sake of the climate.” Time alone will tell.

Keir certainly persuaded this observer that his administration is going to be supremely active and energetic. And that he will have a a large and lasting effect. It is a safe bet that within the life of his government he will transform Britain in ways that are unimaginable to us now.

In five years, Keir will have transformed the electorate and persuaded 20 million constituents –utterly inconceivable as it may be – that voting Conservative is no longer ridiculous.

Lady Victoria Sponger is swanning around in luxury dresses again, this time a £1,105 designer dress from her new favourite brand Edeline Lee. The ongoing Labour donations scandal hasn’t stopped her from dressing to impress…

Lady in red…